Doyle and Hunt extend contracts

Reading director of football Nicky Hammond has hailed Republic of Ireland striker Kevin Doyle's decision to commit himself to the club for the next two-and-a-half years as a major coup.

The 23-year-old Republic of Ireland striker has been handed a pay rise following 10 Premiership strikes in the Royals' first top-flight campaign.

Fellow countryman Stephen Hunt, who was the subject of adverse publicity in October for the challenge that left Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech with a fractured skull, has also signed a new deal.

Hunt, whose previous contract was due to expire in the summer, is now contracted until the summer of 2009.

Doyle has been one of the surprise packages of the Premiership season.

The 23-year-old is the Premiership's third most prolific scorer so far and cost just £78,000 from Cork City two summers ago — the equivalent of 360 Andrey Shevchenkos.

Hammond said: "Kevin's contract extension is very significant and of major importance to our plans moving forward.

"He has quickly become an outstanding Premiership striker, and the great thing about Kevin is that despite all his success and his meteoric rise in the past 18 months, he's still the same level-headed young man who joined us from Cork."

Hunt, 25, has been in and out of the side this season and received death threats through the post in the wake of the Cech incident, which Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho branded reckless.

But Hammond insisted there was more to the former Brentford man than that unfortunate incident in the first minute of his first top-flight start.

He said: "Stephen as been terrific for us since joining and I'm delighted that he's signed for two more years. He has great energy levels, bags of enthusiasm and is a real breath of fresh air around the training ground every day."

Chairman John Madejski added: "This is extremely good news and I am delighted that Kevin and Stephen have committed themselves to Reading.

"They are two of the nicest lads you could possibly wish to meet, and they are both very important players who epitomise everything that is good about football."